Complaint Review: US Periodicals

Sometime around February of 2009, just prior to my daughter's 16th birthday, she received a phone call asking if she wanted to extend her subscription to Discover Magazine that I had purchased for her on her last birthday. She didn't know that these people were not really associated with Discover Magazine and they offered her other magazines and as any kid would, she ordered a magazine for me as well, Guitar World. When she told me later that I didn't have to renew her subscription for Discover, then explained what she did - this was upon receiving the first notice of billing from US Periodicals - I told her that we really couldn't afford this right now and we called and canceled the order.

Jump ahead to today, August 3, 2009. We have received no issues of Discover or Guitar World, therefore we assumed that the order indeed was canceled. We did receive one more bill, which we returned to the sender as canceled as well, but that was it. Low and behold a credit collection agency calls to "collect a debt" owed by my minor child, and now, since she was a minor, it was my debt. I explained to the man that she was a minor and was not able to enter into a contract nor be liable for a debt and also that there was also a cancellation. He would not take "no" for an answer and I lost it, but eventually I did get the name and address of HIS company, although he kept insisting that we owed the debt, despite my repeating that there was no product.

Bottom line, DON'T order your magazines from anyone other than the publisher or perhaps Publisher's Clearing House, who I have dealt with before. I am filing a report with the Attorney General's office for Michigan, but this is ridiculous! I can't believe that these companies would actually prey on children, but they do. Don't order from phone solicitors!

G9rocks64
Harrison, Michigan
U.S.A.